Humility and Hubris in Philanthropy

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“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world — to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity — our own capacity for life — that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.

We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.” – Wendell Berry

If you haven’t had a chance to read Wendell Berry, I would highly recommend him. Start perhaps with his poetry, or with a novel like Jayber Crow, which is part of his series about a fictional town called Port William; then continue onto his essays about the environment, farming, and modernity. If you enjoy a good read, it may be hard to put his books down. Even though the topics he covers in much of his writing may seem far afield from philanthropy, he’s someone who I’d give my right arm to spend an afternoon with because of how much he has informed many of my perspectives in my work with funders. More than anything, his writings have given me a picture of true humility and reverence for the environment that stand in stark contrast to the expendable “move fast and break things” culture we live in today.

I believe Berry has much to say to us in the realm of philanthropy, where there seems to be a new philanthropist on the scene every few months who makes promises to shake up the status quo (as if no one else had ever thought of addressing the problems they see in our world). Some of Berry’s characters in his writing become disconnected from their local communities and put their faith solely in the latest and greatest technologies, painting a picture of hubris that has become a norm — if not a model — to follow. While it is true that the needs in our broken world often seem overwhelming and we are in need of new solutions, so often the lack of humility itself on the part of donors becomes a barrier to learning from and working with others to make an impact.

At the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), we’ve been working for over 15 years to provide foundation leaders and trustees in the U.S. and globally with data and insight to help improve philanthropic effectiveness. Much of that work has revolved around helping funders to listen more carefully to those on the ground doing the work, and to learn and follow evidence-based best practices.

Some of these best practices include ways that funders can build strong relationships with nonprofits and their community constituents, how they become more transparent, and how they can provide the kinds of support that have shown to benefit nonprofits the most. At the heart of all this work is humility.

Recently, CEP expanded our audience to include individual donors, and we are now producing free data-driven resources aimed at helping this new audience. In case you missed it, our first piece of this kind was Donors: Five Things Nonprofit Wish You Knew. Over the next few months, we will continue to share free resources to help donors learn as much as they can so they can do their work more effectively.

If humility is also a core value you share with us, will you join us in listening and learning in service of effectiveness?

Giving Compass' Take:
• This Stanford Social Innovation Review post explores ways in which funders can cultivate trusting, transparent relationships with their grantees that ultimately translate into social impact.
• Much of this boils down to asking the right questions. How can grantmakers help solve problems for their constituents?
• Here's more about the role trust plays in bringing about impact.
Shortly after landing at Sports4Kids (now Playworks), our founder, Jill Vialet, mentioned a potential grant opportunity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). I shot my hand up to volunteer. Writing was my thing. Surely I could make a contribution.
With the help of several others, we succeeded! In 2005, RWJF made a significant grant for Playworks’ national expansion. I enjoyed the process so much I volunteered again, this time to support ongoing communication with the foundation. I figured it would be more of the same — written reports, right?
Not exactly. Over the next 10 years, the program, finance, evaluation, and communications teams at RWJF taught me how deep and meaningful grantmaker-grantee relationships can be. I’m not sure if this approach to grantees is a policy at RWJF or simply the working style of the many people with whom we interacted, but either way, the partnership significantly and positively influenced the course of Playworks’ evolution.
Jill and I initially approached our monthly check-in calls with RWJF as opportunities to showcase how great we were. I shared highlights, stayed silent on challenges, and tried to seem as impressive as possible. From my vantage point, it was going really well!
Then one day, we hit a real bump in the road — a mountain, actually. Financial projections we’d made in the abstract weren’t coming true, including cash flow and regional fundraising. It was complicated and distressing, so our tone on the next call was less than chipper, though we weren’t forthcoming about why.
When we finished sharing the few highlights we had, our program officers asked: “What’s keeping you up at night?”
Read the full article about grantmakers as true partners by Elizabeth Cushing at Stanford Social Innovation Review.

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